A day at amusement parks like Disneyland and Six Flags is usually a mix of endless waiting in line and a few short minutes of pleasure - but sometimes the ultimate nightmare of riders comes true and rides break, causing horrible accidents. What are the worst amusement park accidents? Many people fear the incidents that are on this list. Roller coaster cars flying off the tracks, harnesses not working properly, and cables coming loose.
Most amusement park rides get your adrenaline pumping but are completely safe. Occasionally though, there is an all out disaster where the machinery goes crazy and someone loses a limb or dies. Whether due to malfunctioning or park-goer error, these amusement park disasters have certainly scarred these people for life.
The most horrible amusement park accidents, tragedies, and fatalities that have ever happened appear on this list, leaving us to wonder why so many onlookers took out their camera phones instead of helping.
The Worst Amusement Park Ride Accidents,
Death at Disney
September 5, 2003: The happiest place on Earth turned into a horrible nightmare for a 22-year-old male named Marcello Torres. About a third of the way through the ride, it made a sharp right turn, and part of the train came off the hinges. This forced part of the locomotive-shaped ride to wedge into the tracks, stopping the train completely, and darting like a giant spear through Marcello Torres's chest and head.
River Rapids's Watery Grave
Four people died on Thunder River Rapids Ride at Dreamworld, Australia's biggest theme park, on October 25, 2016. Accounts of the accident don't immediately make clear how the victims died; two were ejected from the ride and the other two trapped on it, though what actually killed them remains unclear.
Three of the four victims have been identified. Two were siblings: Kate Goodchild, brother Luke Dorsett, his partner Roozi Araghi. Their mother, Kim Dorsett, said, “I have three children and have lost two of them today... I have two granddaughters — an eight-month-old and a 12-year-old — and it truly breaks my heart to know that my eight-month-old is never going to get to know her mum.”
According to an eyewitness, at least one of the victims drowned, while children nearby screamed. "There were kids onboard screaming while their mum was trapped under. I’d rather not talk about what I saw," a man recalled.
Claire Wooley, another witness, said “She just kept screaming ‘Where’s Mummy? Where’s Mummy?”
No reason for the incident was given other than a "malfuction." The park, located about 30 miles south of Brisbane, on Australia's Gold Coast, shut down operations the day after the accident, out of respect for the dead.
Batman Kills
A tragic accident occurred in a Georgia Six Flags when a boy jumped two fences clearly marked "Do Not Enter" to retrieve a hat he lost on a ride, but ended up losing his entire head in the process. The bottom part of the ride decapitated him as he was standing up.
In Soviet Russia, Ferris Wheel Rides You
Not only did this kid jump a six-foot fence to an abandoned ferris wheel, he also managed to easily turn it on and get a ride. Halfway through his hijacking he decided he didn’t like the chair he picked, so he switched, very unsuccessfully.
As he dangled 45 feet above the pavement, a crowd gathered. Skip to 0:44 for footage of the dangling child and a description from the people who were there, and ended up picking up a camera phone when they could have easily been helping the poor boy NOT plummet to his death.
Retro Coaster Crash
Let’s go back in time to a simpler era where music was analog, clothes were s**tty, and an indoor Canadian roller coaster went flying off the tracks and killed three people. The exact thing everyone is scared will happen on roller coasters happened in this story: the final car flew of its hinges and was dragged, careening all over the tracks before anyone (finally) pulled the emergency brake.
Skip to 1:49 to see the injuries of the one guy in the car who survived, only to be crippled by memories.
Ferris Wheel Mystery
On Friday 3 June 2011, an 11-year-old girl, Abiah Jones fell to her death from a Ferris Wheel at Mariner's Landing Pier. The cause of the young girl's death is unknown; it is the only accident recorded on that ride and there have been no other guest fatalities since that date.
Kentucky Engineering
A young girl went to Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom and took a ride on the Superman Tower of Pride with some friends. Before the ride got to the top, they heard a cable snap, looked up, and saw cables coming from all parts of the ride, whipping around and injuring their faces. This was only 20 feet off the ground. As the ride started to take them higher, they started seeing black smoke and smelling burned rubber. The girls all yelled, "Stop the ride!" repeatedly, cables all over them, even around their necks. When the girls landed on the ground, one of them smelled burning flesh. It was her severed feet. Her right foot was able to be reattached; however, her left leg had to be amputated.
Skip to 00:50 for the news report and the girl describing exactly what she saw and what happened as the accident went down, which is much more disturbing than any live video footage could be.
Death by Raptor
Reason number one why you should always respect those "Restricted Area" signs at an amusement park: Cedar Point park-goer James Young, 45, died when he sneaked past a fenced-off area near the Raptor roller coaster at the Ohio theme park. He was hit by a speeding car on the ride while trying to retrieve his cell phone. Perhaps the second worst death-by-raptor imaginable.
Tragic Waterslide Death
Ten-year-old Caleb Schwab tragically fell to his death in 2016 while riding the Verruckt - a waterslide at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City billed as the tallest in the world. Witnesses said that Caleb's raft went airborne and hit the netting over the slide after coming down the first 168-ft tall slope at roughly 60 mph. Other riders had reported earlier that the slide's safety harnesses had not been working properly that day, although police and park officials did not say exactly how Caleb had died. Caleb was the son of Kansas State Rep. Scott Schwab, and was at the park with his family to celebrate "Elected Official Day."
Swing of Death
At a Chinese theme park, a high-flying swing ride came off its hinges, seriously injuring the many people who were riding it.